Tampines Secondary School
Tampines Secondary School (TPSS) is a government co-educational secondary school in Singapore. It shares the same building as Tampines Primary School, but the school is not affiliated to Tampines Primary School. In 2008, it shifted to a holding site in Bedok South Road and moved back to Tampines Street 12 in March 2010, under the MOE PRIME upgrading programme. Many students from Tampines Secondary School are also there, such as Tse Mun Hoi, Angeline Wong, Timothy Mok, Chew Shin Ru, Annabel Lim, Ong Lifen, Lee Sher Min and Maryann Seto. Many of our Flashback Purple was being filmed at Tampines Secondary School, including the school lock-ups from June 2013 and the relocation of many items. Sometimes the flashback has various means, like the school meetups in September 2010 (with the windows smashed in an office building with a gun). At the same time, Angeline, Shin Ru, Annabel and Lifen are in the classroom talking. This was being done at the Tampines Secondary School campus. History Tampines Secondary School was established in 1986. It was one of the first schools built to serve the new community. The three government schools that were closed down in 1986 are Braddell Rise Primary School, Tanah Merah Besar Primary School and Pulau Seking Primary School. Newer secondary schools are Yuhua, Yishun Town, Yishun, Fuchun, Bukit View, Bukit Batok and Tampines. 7 schools were also closed down in 1986 are Meng Teck, Sin Min, Bin Kiang, Hua Mien, Cheng Hwa, Sin Hwa and Kong Yiong. *Jervois East and Jervois West becoming Jervois Primary *Fowlie and Seraya becoming Fowlie Primary *Balestier Hill West and Balestier Hill becoming Balestier Hill Primary *Bukit Ho Swee East and Bukit Ho Swee West becoming Bukit Ho Swee Primary *Bedok Boys', Bedok Girls' and Bedok Primary becoming Bedok Primary *Redhill Primary, Bukit Merah North and Bukit Merah South Primary becoming Bukit Merah Primary School The school started on 2 January 1986 with its first Principal, Mr Koh Sei Hian, 12 teachers and 458 pupils in 12 Secondary one classes. He laid a firm foundation for the growth of the school. In its first year, classes functioned at Pasir Ris Secondary School as the school building was still under construction, and was later occupied by Tampines Junior College till December 1986. The school formally moved into its Tampines site on 23 December 1986. Mr Koh charted the journey for Tampines Secondary School with a vision that "Pupils should acquire desirable social and moral values in addition to skills and knowledge to serve society." The school's motto, "Betterment of Self for Society" is a call to each student. The school was officially opened on 8.8.88 by Mr Phua Bah Lee, then Senior Parliamentary Secretary (Defence) and Member of Parliament for Tampines. Daulath Tajuddin joined the school as Principal in December 1995 and retired on 31 December 1999. Many improvements to the school have been made under her leadership with more information technology. Mdm Poon Chew Leng was appointed Principal of Tampines Secondary School with effect from 1 January 2000. Neo Tick Watt was appointed principal in 2001, which was originally from Montfort Secondary School (1995 - 2001). The school celebrated her 20th Anniversary in 2006 with a Gala Dinner and the formation of its first Alumni. Neo Tick Watt retired in 2010. TPSS had underwent PRIME in 2008. In tandem with physical change was also a fresh vision towards a more pervasive culture of exploring imagined possibilities. Mr Balamurugan Krishnasamy, our fifth Principal, turned the campus into a vibrant and energetic space for students to express themselves innovatively. It was during this period when the school put in place building blocks to create a niche in visual and performing arts and creative engineering, supported by our Life Long Learning Programme and Applied Learning Programme respectively. In January 2010, Mr Balamurugan was appointed principal of the school, and shifted back to Tampines Street 12 with continuous improvements from April 2010, likewise extending the school hours to 24-hour for Fridays and Saturdays. School was extended by January 2011 to late nights to cater to students who are studying. The new building has a hotel for overnight sleepers, which includes Angeline Wong where she had moved in on April 2010 to December 2013. There is also an Olympic Stadium, the swimming pool being opened to the public. On 11 January 2010, Tampines Secondary School was privatised to CapitaMalls Asia, and in 22 January 2013, it was re-tendered to Go-Ahead Group. In January 2011, new teachers like Wong Yiwei and John Lim Kwan Shen were introduced. Biometric scanners were implemented in February 2011, which needs thumbprint or an access card similar to Holiday Inn Melaka. The school fence was being broken in March 2011, simulating the Changi Depot vandalism act where Desmond Leow and Ahmad Sies wants to break the fence. On the 2 August 2011, Tampines Secondary School had an anti-terror exercise simulating Norway attack scenario armed with M16 rifles. In January 2012, Tampines Secondary School have added new CCAs - Dance Dynamics and Show Choir. It replaces the normal choir that was usable until January 2012. On 7 March 2012, Ong Zhizhong took a fire extinguisher and smashed the window, simulating MRT scenario. Then, it was being disrupted in May 2012 and February 2013 with the Facebook and online incidents. On the 2 August 2013, Tampines Secondary School had another emergency exercise which includes hostage situation. Our group was graduated in October 2013, in several batches before quietening down by October 2016, where Brydan Lim, Lee Her Leong and Charmine Lim had went to ITE College East. In 2016, Mr Balamurugan Krishnasamy had moved to Pasir Ris Crest Secondary School, then he had resigned from educational service thereafter. It was replaced by Mr Shane Kwok, who became a "dictator principal", effectively restricting alumni from going in. In addition, Mr Tan Yuanyan had moved to Admiralty Secondary School. In March 2010, the school uniform with the tie was briefly replaced by TPSS Commemorative T-shirt on Wednesdays followed by on January 2013, it was being replaced by house T-shirts as the Commemorative T-shirt is no longer on Wednesdays. The TPSS commemorative polo T-shirt was again revived in January 2016, and it was on Tuesdays. The only obvious thing is that Fridays are still Casual Fridays. On 3 May 2019, there were two Tampines Secondary School students fighting in the toilet. The 48-second video first surfaced from Reddit shows two boys punching and wrestling each other. One boy is not wearing a shirt while the other has on a red T-shirt with the words "Team Sirius". Sirius is one of four houses at Tampines Secondary School. Eventually, the shirtless boy backs his opponent into a corner, and stops when the onlookers tell him to do so. The school spokesman said that investigations had revealed there was no animosity between the students, who were not injured. He added that the school is also working closely with the parents of the students to ensure that all students involved learnd from the incident and take responsibility for their actions. Mr Suhairi had moved to Ministry of Education (Educational Psychological Division) in September 2017 after he retired from Tampines Secondary School.Educational Psychological Division Identity and culture The school motto is "Betterment of Self for Society", where the school values is "The Choice Is Yours". Tampines Tree: Our Metaphor The name "Tampines" originated from the name of a valuable timber tree. The name of the tree was formerly spelt as "Tampinis". It was changed to "Tampines" as it was the nearest romanised version of the word. The tree provided a strong and durable ironwood timber which was in great demand in the early days. As there was no forest conservation during those days, the popular demand of the wood from the Tampines tree almost made it extinct by the early eighties. The Tampines tree has been our metaphor of strength and resilience. Our shared values of care and concern, teamwork, achievement, responsibility and continuous improvement are reflected as the roots of the tree. The Tampines tree is one of the most valuable timber trees in Peninsula Malaysia, known for its strength, suppleness and durability. Shared Values The school runs its programmes in line with the 5 shared values of Teamwork, Perseverance, Service and Success. Since 2016, the school has most of the shared values: Integrity, Courage, Adaptability, Respect, Excellence (I-CARE). Facilities Tampines Secondary School shares the a main building with Tampines Primary School including a black box theatre. It has about 40 to 50 classrooms, dance studio, library, 4 computer labs, 2 IT resource rooms, 2 physics labs, 2 biology labs, 2 chemistry labs, staff rooms, canteen, bookshop, general office, conference room, SNO room (converted back in 2017), kitchens, sewing room, D&T staff room, sports hall, Olympic stadium, swimming pool and 2 D&T studios. The school is equipped with an interactive learning room with an interactive whiteboard, a digital messaging system with 5 LCD monitors and wireless LCD projectors in its classrooms. House Affiliations Tampines Secondary School has a house system consisting of four houses named after the stars in space. They are Turais (Yellow), Polaris (Blue), Sirius (Red) and Spica (Green). The first letters of each star comes from the school's acronym. CCAs in Tampines Secondary form an integral part of the school’s Character Development efforts. It provides an opportunity for students to learn new knowledge, skills, values and attitudes, and provide for healthy recreation. Students get to choose from 20 CCAs from the 4 main categories of Sports and Games, Uniformed Groups, Performing Arts as well as Clubs and Societies. The school offers a wide range of CCA that exposes the students to different experiences and encourages the exploration of diverse interests. Our CCA structure focuses on four domains namely Character Education (CE), Health, Student Leadership and Outdoor Education. The Watervalley The Watervalley is a residence that is part of Tampines Secondary School. It consists of houses that are up to 20-storey. It is a five-star hotel that has portable television, queen-sized bed and several cupboards, including the renting of the laptops - which is from HP, Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba, all are under Windows 7 before it was upgraded to Windows 10. Tenants *Angeline Wong (- Nov 2013) *Chew Shin Ru (- Sep 2013) *Ka Ka Yeung (Already out) *Ang Leng Yuk (- Nov 2013) *Eunice Chok (- Nov 2013) References External links * Official School Website Category:Secondary schools in Singapore Category:Educational institutions established in 1986 Category:Tampines Category:1986 establishments in Singapore